page_title: Oriental Shorthair
section_title: Patterns
hierarchical_section_title: Oriental Shorthair / Patterns
caption_attribution_description: English: An Oriental shorthair cat
context_page_description: The Oriental Shorthair is a breed of domestic cat that is developed from and closely related to the Siamese cat. It maintains the modern Siamese head and body type but appears in a wide range of coat colors and patterns. Like the Siamese, Orientals have almond-shaped eyes, a triangular head shape, large ears, and an elongated, slender, and muscular body. Their personalities are also very similar. Orientals are social, intelligent, and many are rather vocal. They often remain playful into adulthood, with many enjoying playing fetch. Despite their slender appearance, they are athletic and can leap into high places. They prefer to live in pairs or groups and also seek human interaction. Unlike the breed's blue-eyed forebear, Orientals are usually green-eyed. The Oriental Longhair differs only with respect to coat length.
  While the breed's genetic roots are ultimately in Thailand, it was formally developed in the US by a number of New York area cat breeders, led by Vicky and Peter Markstein, who in 1971-72 were intrigued by lynx patterned and solid colored cats of a Siamese body type at Angela Sayers' Solitaire Cattery and at Patricia White's.
context_section_description: In total, over 300 coat color and pattern combinations are possible under CFA conformation rules.  The basic types include:
  Solid : The coat color is uniform across the entire cat. Each hair shaft should be the same color from root to tip, and be free of banding and tipping. CFA-acceptable colors for this breed are red, cream, ebony, blue, lavender, cinnamon, fawn and white. The corresponding GCCF colors are (respectively) red, cream, brown, blue, lilac, chocolate and apricot (white is not permitted as the base color in GCCF, and WCF does not permit white at all).
  Shaded pattern: Will have a white undercoat with only the tips being colored CFA and GCCF recognize this. Other breed registries call this the chinchilla pattern.
  Smoke pattern: The hair shaft will have a narrow band of white at the base which can only be seen when the hair is parted. This white undercoat to any of the above solid colors (except white, of course) is provided by an interaction of two different genes. CFA and GCCF recognize this.
  Parti-color: Has patches of red and/or cream, which may be well-defined blotches of color, or marbled. This color pattern is referred to as tortoiseshell (or "tortie" for short) in non-pedigreed cats by CFA, and this alternative term is used by GCCF and organizations for pedigreed cats as well.
  Tabby coat pattern: Recognized by GCCF and CFA.  Each hair shaft should have a band of color around the middle of the hair shaft. GCCF recognizes four variants of tabby: classic, mackerel, spotted and ticked.
  Bicolor pattern: Recognized by GCCF and CFA. The bicolor pattern is created by the addition of a white spotting gene to any of the other accepted colors/patterns. The cat will have white on its belly, on the legs/paws, and in an inverted "V" on the face. WCF does not permit this variant, as it is opposed to white in this breed.
caption: Ebony silver-ticked tabby male kitten
exif: {"Image Make": "Hewlett-Packard", "Image Model": "HP Photosmart R960  (V01.00)", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.2", "Image DateTime": "2007:07:16 21:41:13", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.4.9", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "270", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "722", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6071", "EXIF ExposureTime": "833/50000", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:07:14 12:15:08", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:07:14 12:15:08", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1513/256", "EXIF ApertureValue": "783/256", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "229/256", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "14/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "D55", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "15/2", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF SensingMethod": "Not defined"}